1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an armored vehicle with an overhead or top-mounted cannon or barreled weapon, which is supported in a forked cradle support so as to be elevatable about a bearing trunnion axis, and which includes an arrangement for the storage of the ammunition and the conveyance of the ammunition from a main storage magazine and from an auxiliary storage magazine.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
From the disclosure of German Patent No. 28 37 303, there has become known an arrangement for the storage of ammunition and for the conveyance of ammunition in an armored vehicle incorporating a top-mounted cannon. The cannon is supported so a to be elevatable within a forked cradle support. A main storage magazine is fixedly connected with the chassis of the vehicle, whereas an intermediate or temporary storage magazine takes part in the lateral or sideways movement of the cannon barrel. The projectiles are raised towards the weapon though the intermediary of a hoist loading deice from a rearwardly-located storage component, and introduced into the shell chamber of the weapon. In order to facilitate the loading of the gun barrel from an ammunition storage magazine when the gun barrel is elevated, as well as being rotated about the azimuthal or bearing axis, a rotatable armored turret must be provided for the armored vehicle. Within this rotatable armored turret there is located the ammunition storage which, consequently, is imparted the rotations of the turret and of the gun barrel, and which facilitates the loading even after the rotation of the gun barrel. Independently of the aspect that an armored turret, together with all of its necessary installations, is extremely complicated from the standpoint of its technology, during attack by an enemy it presents a preferred target due to the raised construction above the armored vehicle.